Podcast Study Shows Steadily Increasing Revenue

U.S. ad revenues from podcasting are predicted to jump to $220 million in 2017, according to the first IAB Podcast Advertising Revenue Study. That’s an 85% increase over $119 million in 2016, and would follow a growth rate of 73% the year before.

Also of interest: Marketers demonstrated a preference for ads read by podcast hosts over preproduced ad content; and in 2016, dynamically inserted ads generated more revenue than integrated ads — coinciding with dynamically inserted ads increase to 51% of ad spend from 2015 to 2016. In 2015, direct response ads made up 83% of podcast campaigns; this dropped to 73% in 2016, but direct response still dominated other campaign types such as branded content, product placement or brand awareness.

The study drew on data from 20 industry players and encompasses various forms of podcast advertising to provide a measurement of its growth. The survey was conducted by PwC US; IAB released the report. According to IAB Senior Vice President of Research and Impact Chris Kuist, the survey is “the first to directly survey the podcast industry’s significant revenue generators.”

This study uses the same methodology as the annual IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report. In 2016 the latter found that digital audio ad formats brought in revenues of $1.1 billion, but it did not include 2016 revenues from podcast advertising.

“The IAB Podcast Advertising Revenue Study proves two things: the whole world is listening, and brands are taking notice,” IAB President and CEO Randall Rothenberg stated in a press release.